Bullied Severum

[garyspence84]

Recently I got a pair of young gold severum (roughly about 2/3 weeks ago), and bar the 1st day, where they swam together, 1 has constantly been chasing, biting and generally annoying the other. Even during feeding time, the 1 being bullied will go get some food, and the other just continues chasing it away.

There only about 1 and a half inches long, so really very young.

Today I noticed that the 1 being bullied, isn't looking so well. Colour very pale and fins in pretty bad condition.

Now I've bought a million fish and saw this a million times and usually it sorts itself out. Battles for dominance always happen. But its been constant, I've never really saw it going on for as long as this before.

Is there anything I could do to try calm things down? I don't want to get rid of it and I don't REALLY want to get any more of them, although I know an other would take the focus off it for a while.

I've read that they will do fine as singletons and will do well in groups (I've kept them in groups in the past but didn't experience this).

Am I just over thinking this and need to just give it more time or does something need to change?

Gary

 

[star4]

At that size they are too young to be having breeding issues, this sort of aggression does usually sort itself out, however bearing their size in mind it sounds like you do have a bully. I would suggest removing the bully to another tank if you have one, the longer it spends alone the better (couple of weeks if possible) if he is that bad that he will not leave the other alone. I say 2 weeks just to give the bullied fish time to recover and re-establish itself in the tank and "get comfortable" in its own little area, to do this completely re-arrange the tank, giving as many tall plants (plastic or silk) and branches making obstacles for the fleeing fish to use to make the other loose sight of it, to break up the line of site between the two fish, then re-introduce the bully. I would do this as the other one is showing signs of stress (loss of colour). You can try this many times until you get the scape right where they are both comfortable. Hope this helps.

 

[garyspence84]

Unfortunately I no longer have an other tank I can put it in, so I'm kind of back to square 1.

I will maybe stick it into a friends tank, see how that goes.

Thanks very much

 

[star4]

That would be ok so long as they are parted for a while, give you chance to re-scape and let the other sev gain confidence

 

[garyspence84]

That would be ok so long as they are parted for a while, give you chance to re-scape and let the other sev gain confidence

Cheers star4.

Managed to find an other tank to put it in. It's not the biggest tank, but its only for a week or so, so I'm sure it'll be fine.

I am waiting on 2 big pieces of bogwood arriving so my tank will be getting re scaped once they arrive (hopefully within the next week). And i'll get a bunch of plants to add to the tank too.

Cheers for your help

 

[star4]

For a week or so a smaller tank is no problem, wood is good, live plants

severums are devils for eating live plants, but saying that as they are only babies still you should be ok for a while Best of luck

 

[garyspence84]

That's my bully severum been moved into a friends tank for a we holiday last night and instantly I noticed a difference in the other severum. Swimming about care free and its even got a bit of colour about it again which is good. Hopefully this week my new bogwood will arrive and I can totally re scape the tank and get it back in.

Will keep posted with progress.

 

[star4]

Fingers crossed it all works out ok

 

[garyspence84]

Well so far so good for my severum. It's swimming about the tank like it owns it. It has got a we bit of damage to its fins so I have put some aquarium salt in the tank and turned the temp up a couple of degrees for the next few days and already seeing good results.

I will still give it a week though before I re introduce my other severum back into the tank. Just to be safe.

 

[garyspence84]

I finally got round to getting my other severum back the other night and all seems well. There was a bit of a fight when I put him back in but its all calm on the western front now. The bullied has now become the bully now but its no where near as bad as it was before. So splitting them yo for a couple of weeks has made the difference.

Cheers

 

[star4]

Brilliant news so glad it worked out.

 

[garyspence84]

Cheers star4. Glad it worked out too. There's still a bit of chasing going on but they seem to be chasing each other, rather than just1 being picked on all the time.